How smart are groundhogs/woodchucks? - How good is their memory? - Trying to get one

Status
Not open for further replies.
I just set a Duke 1-1/2 CS at his other hole.....so maybe that will work. That trap says good for Mink/Muskrat/Raccoon but I couldn't find any trap that said groundhog, so I hope this will work because that's about the size they are. Will this trap work?

Screenshot_20200828-113510_Chrome.jpg

Also, I think he may actually be dead because a bad smell is coming from inside the hole and I see quite a few flies coming in and out of the hole. Not a death smell for sure but a bad smell....but maybe that's how they smell.
 
Last edited:
I think the trap is too small for a 'chuck. Why not a 110 Conibear and have done with him?
I like the idea of baiting with apples. Start near the hole. Give him a couple free ones. Then start to get them further out. Then with the Conibear laying there. Then set up just beyond the apple. THEN between the den and the apple, with a couple sticks to guide him squarely into it.

Darnit......another thing is...the chuck I saw was a smaller one, probably a juvenile, like 4-6lbs. probably.
 
I have no input other than this:

upload_2020-8-28_18-11-23.gif

I’ve never had them around my house but I do think they are interesting animals. I like it when the climb way up on top of brush piles.
 
Never seen a chuck spook and vacate an area. If thats his den, hes stayin til you kill him or another chuck runs him off (or whatever other critter might go in and give him the boot ).

If you shot low you mighta skipped one in him. More than one can live in a den.

Ive killed quite a few. Mostly w .243 win and 70 gr Nosler BT.
 
They are cool and when you shoot an area down the yotes tend to keep the chuck population in check.

Gone are the good old groundhog hunting days.....at least around here.

Most i shot in a day was 10. And that was my usual evening spot.....and on a lark I went around 9 am.
Was crazy....as i was home a little after noon.
 
College.....was hunting a place and saw some on the side of a hill.
Den w a log out front.

Laid on a high flat in the sun and the farmer pulls up w his truck. Asks why i didnt shoot em.

Told him i was trying to line up 3 pups on the log.

He didnt believe me, drove down and waited.

Pups came out, 3rd wouldnt sit still long enough to get all 3 w one shot, so i just fired and got 2.

Farmer comes back and asks if I got one
Held up 2 fingers. He couldnt believe it.

So i went to the spot w him watching and held up 2 bodies. LOL

All my old timer chuck farmers are long gone. Good ol boys they were.
Their kids......not from the same cloth.
 
Wait til you spook one and dont know hes there and he does an alarm whistle.

Make ya jump pretty good. Cool sound though. And they dont do it very often.

But youll know it when you hear it.

Call em Whistlepigs for a reason.
 
Darnit......another thing is...the chuck I saw was a smaller one, probably a juvenile, like 4-6lbs. probably.
. If you've seen one, there's probably more. Never tried trapping 'chucks but I'd guess that trap could work. That's interesting; and keep us posted on that if possible. I thought of this thread this morning while having my coffee on the deck. The first 'chuck out back stuck his head out about 6:20 a.m. just high enough to look around to make sure the area was safe. I was about 115 yds. away watching with binoculars or else I may not have noticed him until he got out further. If I was gonna eradicate him I could have been hidden in the treeline about 25 - 30 yds. away from the hole with a .22 aiming for a head shot when he comes all the way out. I've probably taken more 'chucks with a 22LR than with all the centerfire stuff combined. If you know when to get into a good shooting location and hide there's a better chance you could take him out quickly and humanely when he appears.
 
*** I don't want to use poison as pets in the area and I want to make sure it's dead. ***

I built this contraption for subterranean critters.

index.php


It makes a tunnel below ground and drops the poison seed into the tunnel every 3ft or so as you drive.

index.php


Keeps it out of reach for above ground animals. You know they are dead when the mounds of dirt stop forming.
 
Groundhogs on my property are smart enough to know they can ignore me if I’m on the tractor. Anything else and they’ll disappear. Sooo I tried carrying a rifle behind the tractor seat. Haven’t seen one since. I think they’re interesting animals and if we didn’t have horses, I’d probably let them be.

A single male usually supports 2 or 3 females. The secret is to get him. Once I do that, I’ll have about a year without problems.
 
I just set a Duke 1-1/2 CS at his other hole.....so maybe that will work. That trap says good for Mink/Muskrat/Raccoon but I couldn't find any trap that said groundhog, so I hope this will work because that's about the size they are. Will this trap work?

In the OP you said you didn’t want to poison because of pets, what did you do to keep them out of that trap?

I don’t use those traps much because they will catch all sorts of stuff from Children, dogs to chickens. Had a rooster we called hoppy after he got out and into one.

I use these more now as they work for coons/possums but more selective in what can trigger them. Probably wouldn’t use them if I had a cat.

https://www.flemingtraps.com/dp-coon-traps.html

If you google “gopher trap” you will get results for various traps designed just for them.

D5A72516-A1E8-41E0-9572-CA64B7D9796A.jpeg

#3 there is a link to one device specifically for gophers and moles.
 
Last edited:
I used to live and leg hold trap em in town for folks.

1.5 cool spring in the den, make a recess for it- pan cover, sifted dirt.

This just inside the den. Then Id put sticks over the den and dirt. Block it so theyd come to re open it from the inside.

Trap was wired to a drag.
 
Live trap id place by the hole and block around it so theyd try to exit through the wire trap. That worked well.
 
In the OP you said you didn’t want to poison because of pets, what did you do to keep them out of that trap?

I don’t use those traps much because they will catch all sorts of stuff from Children, dogs to chickens. Had a rooster we called hoppy after he got out and into one.

I use these more now as they work for coons/possums but more selective in what can trigger them. Probably wouldn’t use them if I had a cat.

https://www.flemingtraps.com/dp-coon-traps.html

If you google “gopher trap” you will get results for various traps designed just for them.

View attachment 938876

#3 there is a link to one device specifically for gophers and moles.


I dont have any pets but I did set a Duke 1-1/2 CS trap at the entrance. I then filled in all of the tunnels and recovered the wood garden with the plywood again. I've included pics.


20200829_121504.jpg 20200829_121636.jpg 20200829_121708.jpg 20200829_121410.jpg
 
Well, I might have got 'em.


I covered up all of the entrances that I could find and when I checked this morning and this afternoon nothing. Must have hit him with the .22 and he didn't react.


Or he moved onto a different den....if that's the case, how long until he might come back?
 
a 110 connie with kill them dead, but it will be dangerous to other animals too. i perfer to shoot them in the head, i like to walk up on them with my 44-40 small sharps(top target 50 yrds bottom target 75 yrds) and limit my shots to 75 yards .if he,s not dead he will come back or another one may take up the home if he,s dead. i have missed one and sat down and lit a cigar and have just about never smoked it all before it came out again.
 

Attachments

  • DSCN1473 (3).JPG
    DSCN1473 (3).JPG
    211 KB · Views: 10
  • DSCN1471 (3).JPG
    DSCN1471 (3).JPG
    63.7 KB · Views: 10
Last edited:
a 110 connie with kill them dead, but it will be dangerous to other animals too. i perfer to shoot them in the head, i like to walk up on them with my 44-40 small sharps(top target 50 yrds bottom target 75 yrds) and limit my shots to 75 yards .if he,s not dead he will come back or another one may take up the home if he,s dead. i have missed one and sat down and lit a cigar and have just about never smoked it all before it came out again.


That's a beautiful gun.
 
Ditto on the conibear trap but I sure have a great time shootin' them.
The absolute funniest eradication measure I ever personally witnessed was the liquid cow manure approach.
For those of you that don't know, liquid cow manure is created by having cow piss and poop run into a tank digester to "ripen". It's then sprayed from a tank towed by a tractor on alfalfa fields. It makes the alfalfa grow like mad. Aaaaaaand it STINKS. NO I MEAN IT REALLY STINKS. Well, one guy on the farm adjoining my in-laws took the tank full of digested cow piss/poop out on the fields and ran a hose with this awful stuff right into the groundhog holes. What would often happen is one of more groundhogs, sometimes a mother with several little ones, running, rolling, snorting like a bat out of hell out of their den. According to the neighbor they didn't comeback after that treatment. I wish I had video but this was years ago.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top